Here are some photos of my Gato build. I am hoping to cut down the tower to make her look like the USS Drum. The flood holes will not match up for the Drums current style but perhaps it won't matter due to the fluid nature of the fleet boats and the mods.

The marlin is a first I hope. The Gato tower changes the scale and makes the hull look much better.

I'm working on it! Time is not my friend. I have some house repairs that will be taking my time and funds.

Say how many "channels" will I need for the Boat? I'm guessing with a rear plane auto leveler I will need about five. What Radio is thought to be best and what about a channel extenter for my four channel Futaba?

Charlie

BTW,

I worked on the bow section again last night for a few minutes and promptly glued my fingers to everything. Also I glued the dive plane gears so they wouldn't work somehow. I did get them un-glued but was I ever pissed and worried that I would not get the gears working. Talk about a heart stopper.

yes that has caused heart stopage for me aswell!
I would use a 6 channel radio but you could get away with a 5 if you just wanted to have the stern planes driven by an apc alone. I like to be able to tune mine on the fly though.
Not sure if you can extend your futaba.

The black was am attempt to, well, now I don't really know anymore. OH, I remember, I was gonna paint it before I put it in so it would not be an issued since it is white. But it looks bad since I actually had marked the gears at a certain spot to allow correct alignment. Other wise it would be mostly black. The large white spots on it are where the gears were when I painted it and forgot to paint behind the gears before I put it in the bow.

Don't wet you super man undies I hope to attach the bow and stern this weekend. I also hope to cut out the main hull as well.

Soon, the Big Johnson Fleet Boat will rise from the murky depths of the shed and wreak havoc on all the little fishes at Gilligan's Island BAAWAAHAAHAA!

Here are a few shots of yesterdays work. It was so hot I was sweating within minutes of stepping into the shed. The first shot shoes the cutting wheel I used to open the main hull. The second shows the dremel and how it would line up and cut and the third shows the possible CT cut lines to further reduce the silhouette of the tower to make it like the Drums.

I have had some trouble with the stern assembly that I have to mention. I am having trouble getting the props shafts to spin in the tube without "grabbing" at about every half spin. I think there is a problem with the shafts, possibly a high spot or "cam" area, or the shafts are just slightly bent. after thinking through what was wrong I decided to break the aft bearing supports (those closest to the rudder) and rework them. I got everything apart and began to re-do the holes in the hull when I defiantly determined that the prop shafts were not "round". I think that one or both have some "cam" shape to them that needs to be corrected. I noticed it was most pronounced where the cuts were made for the wheel collars.

In my infinite wisdom I chucked up one of the shafts in the dremel and began to use short on-off bursts and some sand paper to "cut down" the shaft and hopefully eliminate the high spots. It was working fine until I let loose of the shaft and the motor was still up at a high RPM. The shaft spun out of control and promptly BENT! SCRAP! FUDGE with BROWNIES! Sadly the idea was working but now I'm SOL.

I am sure the shafts were slightly out of round or had high spots because the shafts did the same "grabbing" when placed in a brass tube. I may go to the hobby shop and see about picking up some solid brass tubes to use instead of the steel ones.

Yesterday I took the plunge. I decided that the tower needed to be cut down. So using a 1/72 scale figure, several photos in reference books and some shots I took of the USS Drum, my trusty ruler with mm on it and a razor saw I went for broke.

The nice thing about the Gato is that parts are cheap and easy to obtain so I figured it was worth the effort.

I basically cut the sides of the tower off. cut out the platform within the tower, and then cut out a section from the middle of the front of the tower. The end result was to have the sides about chest high to the scale figure and the front of the tower have just enough material to allow the door to be reattached. By reaching these two (chest high, enough material for the door) I would duplicate the subs in the photos.

I have not had the time to glue it back together but I hope to work on it some more real soon. So far it looks like it will work well. I must also mention that I was inspired by Rick Nelsons Lion fish article in issue 74.